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Program helps some 'heroes' buy homes

Some county employees and other service workers living in certain parts of the county may qualify for the loans.

By WILL VAN SANT
Published July 23, 2005

CLEARWATER - With home prices continuing to rocket in Pinellas County, officials have launched a program to give vital service workers a boost in the housing market.

Through Pinellas' Hometown Heroes program, select full-time employees of the county school board, area hospitals and police and fire departments can apply for loans of up to $20,000.

The program, which requires that the money be used for down payment and closing costs on a primary residence, is aimed at preventing a critical workforce from fleeing Pinellas for surrounding counties where housing costs are cheaper.

"We are at a point where it is getting difficult for working people to be a part of our community," said Anthony Jones, assistant director of community development in Pinellas. "We don't want to have to bus our employees in."

Housing costs have risen out of reach for many in Pinellas over the last few years.

In 1999, the average just value - what a seller can get for a property - for a single family home was $99,700. In 2004, that number had spiked to $189,100, an increase of nearly 90 percent.

Wage growth has been incremental by comparison during the same period, even as costs for insurance, health care and transportation have continued to climb.

Jade Moore, executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association, said he recently attended an orientation for about 500 starting teachers. With student loans, credit card debt and a beginning salary of about $34,000, Jade said he figured most were either renting or still living with mom and dad.

"I bet we are losing people because they just can't get ahead and get a place to live," Moore said.

The terms of the Hometown Heroes loan are generous: no repayment for five years, 20 years to make good on the debt and zero percent interest. Eligibility, however, is narrow.

To qualify, income for a family of four cannot exceed $62,640, for instance, and the maximum purchase price on a home is capped at $175,000.

The money can be used to buy anywhere in Pinellas County except the cities of St. Petersburg, Clearwater or Largo. Those cities have their own housing programs. (St. Petersburg began offering down payment assistance to teachers last year.)

The rest of the county pools revenue the state collects from a levy on property transfers and uses it to pay for housing programs outside those three cities, said Jones, the assistant director of development.

County leaders say Hometown Heroes arrives at a time when the lack of affordable housing in Pinellas is becoming a crisis. Often the debate has focused on what to do with mobile home park residents who have been displaced by developers.

But the scope of the problem is growing, officials acknowledge, and threatens the welfare of service workers and, increasingly, those who have middle class jobs as teachers and police officers.

Jones said the Hometown Heroes program won't completely fulfill the need that exists, but will help a few. Hopefully, he said, private sector businesses will begin to realize the severity of the problem and offer down payment assistance instead of signing bonuses for new workers.

"It's not a panacea," he said. "But it's one little step to get people to think about our workforce."

Will Van Sant can be reached at 445-4166 or vansant@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 23, 2005, 00:52:10]